MICROSPIRA COMMA 563 



diately afterward living cholera spirilla be introduced, a 

 similar disintegration and destruction of the bacteria will 

 also result. He shows that a more or less definite relation 

 exists between the amount of serum and the number of 

 organisms introduced. Such a destruction *of microspira 

 comma by the serum of an immunized animal does not 

 occur outside the animal body that is, it cannot be demon- 

 strated in a test-tube, unless, as Bordet demonstrated, it be 

 perfectly fresh from the animal body, or, as Metchnikoff 

 showed, there be added to it a small quantity of fresh 

 serum from a normal guinea-pig. The specificity of this 

 reaction is suggested by Pfeiffer as a means of differentiating 

 the cholera spirillum from other suspicious species, for no 

 such bacteriolytic action is observed if other bacteria be 

 introduced into the peritoneal cavity of animals immunized 

 from Asiatic cholera. 



Pfeiffer further demonstrated that the serum of animals 

 artificially immunized from Asiatic cholera has an agglu- 

 tinating effect upon fluid cultures of microspira comma 

 similar to that seen when typhoid bacilli are mixed with 

 serum from typhoid cases, or from animals artificially 

 immunized from typhoid infection or intoxication. (See 

 Agglutinin.) 



General Considerations. In all cases of Asiatic cholera, 

 and only in this disease, the organism just described can be 

 detected in the intestinal evacuations. The more acute the 

 case and the more promptly the examination is made after 

 the evacuations have passed from the patient, the less 

 difficulty will be experienced in detecting the organism. 



In some cases the organism can be detected in the vomited 

 matters, though by no means so constantly as in the intes- 

 tinal contents. 



